A Christian Response to The Atheist Ad Campaign
August 02, 2009

Recently, a new Atheist ad campaign came out and many Christians and quasi-Christians seem upset about it. As a Christian I find this distress puzzling. The ad proclaims: "You can be good without God." Why would this upset Christians? Of course, Christians know this is not true. But Christians also know, or should know, that even with God "they stinketh", they are not good. Christians know they are sinners in need of mercy all the time. Christians know they will see themselves sinless in the resurrection of the dead, not yet, not on this side of the grave. At least they should know this. Unfortunately, many Christians have fallen for many lies about faith in Christ. They believe that God is like the 'Energizer Bunny' inside of them, giving them the power to live without sin. But that is not true in themselves. Because Christians have Christ, they will see and believe what Christ said. Faith believes Christ's Word. That is: He is good. We are not. We are all sinners. We live 'in' the Words "Lord have mercy on us." This is the work of the Holy Spirit that we believe in Jesus Christ as our 'Substitute'.
Because of Christ work for us, in our place, and granting us His Holy Spirit, Christians know there is no one good. No not one. Only God is good.
Christians also know that 'god' is a generic word. Christians know that the only true God is 'the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit', One God, and is He is found only in Christ.
Christians know that the Son of God came down from heaven for us men and for our salvation. Christians know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God come in the flesh, and there is goodness in none other. We receive 'His' righteousness by faith. Faith is given to us to believe the 'unbelievable' from His Word. He says we are sinless but we do not experience it, we see our sin, or should. We believe we will see our sinlessness, which is very real today, one day in the resurrection. Until then, we have it by faith.
Christians know that Christ accomplished this salvation for us by living perfectly according to the Law of God in our place, and dying on the cross for our sins. He is the sinless Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. His life and death are 'imputed to us by faith'.
Christians know they are baptized into the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, for the forgiveness of our sins. In baptism we are covered in the death of Jesus Christ. We want to keep Him, our robe of righteousness, wrapped around us tightly. Flashing the world is none to pretty. Underneath Christ there is still a vile sinner, and a self-righteous Pharisee.
Christians know they still sin, but 'believe' the Word of God that tells us,"If we say we have no sin the truth is not in us, but if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Christians know they serve their neighbors 'messy', sinfully, but receive forgiveness for their sins, and then seek to be merciful to those that sin against them, because Christ has already accomplished all that is necessary for salvation and has freely given us His record. No need to demand perfection from ourselves and others, since Christ has had mercy on all.

So the Atheists think themselves good without God. Christians know they can't be 'good' with God, which is why He came, to have mercy on us, and substitute Himself for us.
So why are Christians upset with the ad? Some TV commentators have even expressed anger and indignation, as if they must protect Christ. He doesn't need protection. But with this ad He has given us Christians a prime avenue to proclaim His forgiveness to a suffering and dying world that is as sinful as we are. Some Christians believe they have 'rights' to be protected from hearing anything against their faith. But Christians and Americans believe in 'free speech'. Free Speech is a good thing, we should use it to debate in the market place of ideas. Getting angry over this ad is simply anti-Christian. God has given us a prime opportunity to speak His Law, that always condemns us all, and to speak His answer to this condemnation, the Gospel. We are always condemned by the spotlight of God's holy Law demanding perfection from us. The Gospel tells us, that is exactly why Christ came to die for us. He did not come to give us a little extra help, or to be a role model, much less a community organizer. He came to give us real relief, the forgiveness of all our sins, rest from the burden of our real bondage.

The early Christians were martyred for their faith in Christ, and many are being martyred today in other countries. But in America, Christians whine more than suffer for Christ. We sue for our rights. But we only have rights to sue as citizens, not as Christians. God and country are not the same, and God is not a Conservative or a Liberal. That would be idolatry to believe God and country are the same. If atheists or other groups speak against Christianity, we just keep repeating the Law and Gospel of Christ to them. That is all the power we have. Free speech. The real power belongs to Christ.

Christians were given a gift with this ad campaign and should rejoice to be able to speak so freely to answer it, and tell others that their sins are forgiven too. Only God gives faith to believe, and God only uses His Gospel to do it. It is not a personal choice. We speak the Gospel of the life, death, resurrection of the Son of God freely. The Holy Spirit is in His Word, and He gives life, forgiveness, when the Word of Christ is preached.
Let Atheists do or say what they will. Anger is not necessary, and claiming mythical rights not to hear it is far more American than Christian in behavior. The Gospel was given to us freely so we freely give it.
I think the Atheists should run more ad campaigns like this. Let's have a debate, tell each other what we believe. This is a blessing from God.

Christ Mercy T-Shirts are available at The Smokin' Frog at Cafepress and The Smokin' Frog at Zazzle.

Idols and Idolatry
August 08, 2009

People are inherently idolatrous.
We worship people and causes too readily. Americans are not exempt from this condition and in fact we excel in it. We worship sports stars, movie stars, singers (or at least that is what they claim to be). We worship pastors, teachers, community leaders, CEOs. We also worship causes, like Mother Earth Worship. It's been going on for centuries but it is running on steroids today, thanks to the inventiveness of Al Gore.

One cause we have elevated to an idolatrous level is our repentance for slavery. We just can't repent enough. In our efforts to cleanse our souls of this national sin, we resort to denying the truth. The truth is that all people are sinners, all people hate, all people hate different races. We're not the good people we think we are. But because of slavery we have nationally proclaimed that Black people can not be racists, and White people are always racist to some degree. But this is false. By teaching this in our schools and churches we have removed Black people from the call of Christ to repent of their sins. Blacks hate and are as racist as Whites. They, like the rest of us, even hate members of their own families. Some also want to get even with Whites. But Scripture excuses no one. All have sinned. When we have elevated one group out of the human condition of sinner, we do more harm, eternal harm, than slavery ever did. If slavery was so awful, as it was, it was heinous, why repeatedly blame those that stopped it? Blacks are still enslaving one another in Africa today, brutalizing one another, mutilating women, but the White Americans are the only ones guilty of it, and yet they are the ones that stopped it.

Because of our worship at the altar of race, we elected a thoroughly unqualified Black president, in an effort to ease our guilt. And he seems hell bent on subjecting White people to Black people. He also calls himself a Christian. Christianity does not teach what he claims. It teaches sin is in all of us all the time. The hatred expressed by Black Liberation theologians and politicians is palpable. The need and action to 'get even' for justice sake is anti-Christian and devilish.

But we brought it on ourselves by worshiping at the altar of race instead of saying no to it. Everything really is not about skin color. But we have been made to believe it is. We have been told repeatedly that we need to have a conversation on race. But race is all we ever talk about. It gets no where because one side has exempted themselves from the category of sinner.
The worst cut of all is, our new President Obama is bringing in a new worship of tolerance for those that kill us, Muslim extremists. He now tells us the war on terror is over. His only real hatred is towards Republicans and Conservatives, those that refuse to submit to his Marxist fundamental change of our country. He's even told us to shut up. No more free speech with this new American Idol. But it is good to know the Muslims extremists love us now and the war is over.
The worship of this new messiah is so extensive that the Obama voters would vote for a health care bill that ensures our early demise, our early death. They have been so thoroughly duped, that they would let this president kill them when they reach a certain age. Idolatry never ends well. Remember Jim Jones?

Unfortunately we are verging on the precipice of another idolatrous altar. We must be careful here too. Because of the heinous treatment of Viet Nam Vets, we are verging on soldier worship today. In order to repent of our national sin of seeking to destroy those that would die for us in a supposedly unjust war, we are elevating the soldier status higher than just being thankful for them and aiding them in their transition back home. Here too, we remove from soldiers the need to repent of their sins. Some of our dear soldiers come home wrecked. They need us more than ever to aid them and tell the truth to them. Elevating them to demigod status does not help them or enable our cleansing from guilt of mistreating Viet Nam Vets. Unfortunately, this altar has been manipulated by the Hollywood crowd. Their disdain for all things American is rank, but they have been able to use soldiers to cover their disdain. And they do love playing them on the big screen.

We are always driven to make idols, it's what we do best. American Idol is an obvious example. But we worship sports stars that rape women, we worship movie stars that despise our country and half the people in it, but they entertain us. We worship singers as they scream angrily at us all the while grabbing their penises. Have we lost our minds? Are we blind? They portray complete depravity.
We worship professors and teachers despite the lies they tell our children.
We also worship junk scientists drunk with their own power to control the masses with their delusional fantasies. Most of their fantasies in one way or another bring death to humans. You can not avoid seeing the obvious. The environmental and cultural causes, that we have been brain washed into believing, demean and destroy human beings. And they remove the Creator from the picture all together. Why do we follow and worship people that want to kill us? Why are we infatuated with people that have love affairs with lower life forms? Are we insane?

We worship, follow, and give our money to the TV preachers and ministers, despite the heresies they preach. No one asks questions. For instance, "Did Jesus Christ really die on the cross to make me rich?" "Is Jesus really just waiting for a pay off from me before He'll buy me a Mercades Benz?" "Does Jesus really just want be to be more positive?" "Does Jesus take MasterCard and Visa?"
We worship particular sins today. Homosexuality is now normal and okie-dokie. Really? These men stick their penises into each others anuses. In case anyone missed heath class, the anus is an exit valve used to evacuate waste from the body. It is not made to be protruded into. It is a filthy practice, and one that causes disease. If we don't say the truth and allow these folks to repent of their sins, we are harming them eternally. Some churches teach this is accepted because we now know that homosexuals are born that way. I agree it comes from birth because all people are born in sin. This is why we needed a Savior. He died to forgive real sins. But our government will now punish us for stating the truth.

We go ballistic if a man engages in dog fighting, killing and maiming these pathetic creatures. And it is horrible. But we can't bring ourselves to say on a national level that doing the same things to little babies is wrong. Why? We worship at the altar of "a woman has control over her body." Women that can not control spreading their legs for every Tom, Dick, and Harry, now have the right to kill the fruit of those actions. This is a horrific national sin. This altar really needs to be destroyed.

We are now entering into a ominous stage in America. We've elected a man that portrays himself a messiah, and adheres to the racism mentioned above. We've also given him a Congress that agrees with most of his Marxist anti-Christian plans. Now we will reap the whirlwind of Socialism/Marxism/Fascism.
This will not cleanse our souls of the sin of racism, or any other sin for that matter. But one day, years from now, as Obama's dystopia prevails over the miserable, not so ignorant masses, our children will ask, "What the hell were we thinking? How could we have been so duped?"
Worshiping idols never turns out well.

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